First, I have to say how thrilled I am that AB4T has been nominated for an Edublog Award in the Best Librarian/Library Blog category. I certainly share the honor with the many fellow librarians who contribute book reviews and guest posts to this blog. It is a wonderfully collaborative effort, which is what makes this blog special — not to mention fun! If you want to vote for the Edublogs (and you can vote for as many categories as you want, once a day), click here.
Now, on to our review of the day. Frail is Book 2 in Joan Frances Turner’s The Resurgam Trilogy. The first, Dust (Ace, 2010), made a splash last year, including a starred review from Booklist.
Dust is a zombie story told from the undead perspective. Frail returns to the human, if you can call it that…
The first chapter of Frail is available on the author’s website.
TURNER, Joan Frances. Frail. 355p. Ace. 2011. Tr $24.95. ISBN 978-0-441-020706-. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Amy thinks she’s the last human alive after a plague decimates the population. She lived at her high school with three other survivors until she did the unthinkable–now she’s the only one left. Zombies have been around long enough to become part of the school curriculum, but the plague generated a new species that Amy dubs exes, as in ex-humans. Exes still show some human emotions but have gained the super-strength of zombies, cannot be permanently injured or killed, and have a taste for raw flesh. Amy fears she’s going crazy, with hallucinations of a dog that follows her and no reason to live except for the hope that somehow her zombie-killing mother has survived. Eventually she finds herself held against her will in a compound of zombies, exes, and humans living together. When she escapes to the grounds of a nearby scientific lab, what she discovers about herself is more horrible than what she could ever have imagined. This follow-up to Dust is the second in a trilogy, and the plot depends on familiar devices of the genre with little levity. Frail delivers on the zombie promise of horror and despair through plenty of violence and quite a lot of exposition. Teens who enjoyed the film or genre-defining novel I Am Legend will feel comfortable in this world. While this title may not inspire new fans, established zombie lovers will find satisfaction.–Priscille Dando, Robert E. Lee High School, Fairfax County, VA
Jonathan Maberry, author of popular YA novels Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay (both Simon & Schuster, 2010 & 2011 respectively), is out with a new adult zombie novel this week. Maberry debuted Dead of Night as a special guest at ZomBcom 2011 this weekend.
You may also know Maberry for his Joe Ledger novels, beginning with Patient Zero (St. Martins, 2009), which address zombies in a sort of bioterrorism techno-thriller.
In preparing this post, I went straight to http://jonathanmaberry.com/ where I got distracted by a virtual panel discussion titled “What Makes YA Fiction So Hot” featuring librarians from across the country. Highly recommended!
MABERRY, Jonathan. Dead of Night: A Zombie Novel. 368p. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2011. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-312-55219-0. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–At first, they are not zombies. They are neighbors and acquaintances living in the small town of Stebbins, PA. But through governmental mishap, the infected body of a serial killer is sent to the Stebbins funeral home, where it rises out of the body bag and attacks the mortician. “Attacks,” in this case, means chewing the man’s throat out, but not killing him. Thus begins the invasion of the “hollow men,” people with the full consciousness of their human selves but trapped in a body that craves the taste of human flesh. It falls to a pair of police officers–voluptuous, hardened Dez Fox and her infinitely patient partner J.T.–to protect the people of Stebbins from the incomprehensible danger. At the same time, handsome journalist Billy Trout, Dez’s on-again, now off-again lover, is tracking down the evil genius behind the zombie epidemic. All of the requisite thriller elements come together as the zombies overtake the small community. There is government conspiracy, scientific malfeasance, unrequited sexual attraction, and, most importantly, plenty of gore. Faces are eaten off, limbs are severed, and body fluids leak in vivid detail. Short chapters keep the action moving. Maberry is an accomplished horror writer who keeps an intelligent sensibility running beneath the sensational action of his novel, and he has published a YA zombie series that begins with Rot & Ruin (S & S, 2010). Dead of Night is a definite teen magnet.–Diane Colson, formerly of New Port Richey Library, FL
The first in Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series, Feed, was the second book ever reviewed on this blog, back in October. Since then, Feed has been nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Novel (awarded by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy novel).
The Newsflesh series webpage, on Grant’s site, does a great job of summarizing the plot of Feed and the series concept. The final book, Blackout, is scheduled for May 2012 release.
GRANT, Mira. Deadline. 608p. (Newsflesh Trilogy). Orbit. 2011. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-0-316-08106-1. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Shaun Mason is literally mad with grief after the death of his sister. She still speaks to him. He still answers her, aloud. While the Kellis-Amberlee virus continues to rage throughout the population, transforming ordinary humans into flesh-eating zombies, Shaun cannot get past seeking revenge for Georgia’s death. A young scientist from the Center for Disease Control stages her own death in order to reach Shaun and his After the Endtimes blogging crew, revealing important research that is being suppressed by CDC authorities. Humans with reservoir conditions, which are pockets of the live Kellis-Amberlee virus that are stored in a particular organ, may possess immunity to full-blown infection. In other words, someone like Georgia, who had a reservoir condition affecting her eyes, might have survived her exposure to Kellis-Amberlee without turning into a zombie. Shaun sets off cross-country seeking answers. Ominously, one certainty emerges: Kellis-Amberlee is being deliberately kept alive by someone with a lot of power. Once again, Grant presents that excellent combination of intellectual discourse and terrifying action that appeals to many teens. Readers of sophisticated thrillers reminiscent of the work of Michael Crichton or Douglas Preston should enjoy this series. While this book moves a bit slower than Feed, the first volume in the trilogy (Orbit, 2010), it has a whopper of a twist at the conclusion.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Public Library, FL
It is 1592, and zombies have overtaken London. Who better to stop the undead than Shakespeare?
And oh yes, Shakespeare is himself a vampire because, really, how could anyone write so many great works in one lifetime?
HANDELAND, Lori. Shakespeare Undead. 320p. St. Martin’s/Griffin. 2010. Tr $13.99. ISBN 978-0-312-64152-8. LC 2010014437.
Adult/High School–Sure, this is a trashy romance in which William Shakespeare is a vampire and his leading lady is a zombie hunter. It’s also a densely layered piece of postmodern pop art through which Handeland argues for reclaiming Shakespeare as a popular artist, placing the Bard on an artistic continuum with The Wizard of Oz, The Sixth Sense, and Twilight. At the same time she parodies such different sources as Shakespeare in Love, Will in the World, and anti-Stratfordian tracts, showing that thinking that Shakespeare’s poems and plays offer direct access to the poet’s personal life is as ridiculous as believing that Shakespeare was a zombie-hunting vampire. Her own narrative, which manages to offer teens an interesting mystery, a romance that would put Edward and Bella to shame, and a healthy helping of zombie gore, preempts any criticism of its own superfluity by offering up Shakespeare’s plays (specifically Two Gentlemen of Verona) as prototypical examples of potboiler plots teeming with subtextual power. Perhaps most surprisingly, though the attempts at the language are horrendous, Handeland does a creditable enough job of portraying Elizabethan England that the novel would work as curriculum support in a history course as well as it would in an English class. This is a novel likely to be unjustly overlooked, that in fact offers something for just about everyone.–Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Solano County, CA
Cherie Priest’s first Clockwork Century novel, Boneshaker (Tor, 2009) won the 2010 Locus Award for Best SF Novel and was nominated for both the Nebula and the Hugo. If you are looking for a review, check out this one by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing.
Today’s book, Dreadnought, is the second novel in her steampunk Clockwork Century universe, the sequel to Boneshaker.
To learn more about steampunk, check out this article by Heather Campbell, published right here on SLJ in December 2010. It includes lists of recommended reads for every age, fiction and nonfiction.
I cannot resist sharing one more resource: the video of a steampunk author panel from the SLJ/LJ Day of Dialog at BookExpo 2010, including Cherie Priest, Scott Westerfeld, and Cory Doctorow. All of the authors are terribly well-spoken, and Scott Westerfeld in particular gives an insightful, brief talk explaining the genre.
PRIEST, Cherie. Dreadnought. 480p. Tor. 2010. pap. $14.99. ISBN 978-0-7653-2578-5. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–Boneshaker (Tor, 2009), the award-winning first volume of Priest’s trilogy, introduced readers (including plenty of teen fans) to an alternate 19th century in which the Civil War has lasted for more than 20 years and in which a machine run amok unleashed a yellow gas that transformed people into zombies. Dreadnought is more thoughtful than Boneshaker, with lots of meditation about war and class, but the action (which begins almost halfway though) is pulse-pounding and vivid (plenty of shoot ‘em up scenes, carnage, and nail-biting tension). Main character Mercy initially seems unappealing and distant–she’s a Civil War nurse and a widow, and holds herself distant from almost everyone–but her youth and her cross-country journey to find a father she barely remembers (a character first met in Boneshaker) and the mystery she finds and begins to solve along the way (which readers will already have solved as it concerns zombies beginning to appear east of Seattle) will win over any readers who persevere through the slow start. The pacing is uneven and the ending feels a bit phoned in (especially the arrival in Seattle and introductions to the cast of volume one), but those who read the first book will definitely want this one. This is more sophisticated and less sexy than the recent rash of YA zombie books–the rotters are genuinely scary and survival is far from certain. Invest in the series.– Karyn N. Silverman, LREI (Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School), New York City
Looking forward to several hours of train travel on Christmas Day, I promised myself a mindless read. Nothing teen-related, nothing for a bookgroup. So I picked a Swedish mystery/thriller from my shelf. (Full disclosure: Last Christmas I bought my Dad a pile of Swedish mysteries to compliment his enjoyment of Stieg Larsson. I have since–surprise!–borrowed most of them.) Yesterday, about halfway through Missing by Karin Alvtegen, I realized what a perfect recommendation it is for teens who enjoyed the Millennium Trilogy. The homeless protagonist, Sibylla, teams up with a 15-year-old boy to find the killer, and flashbacks to her own teen years are central to the plot. The pace never slows and Sibylla is an appealing, interesting character. Originally published as Saknad in Sweden in 2000, the English translation was published by Felony and Mayhem Press in 2008.
Zombies are the subject of Handling the Undead, the latest U.S. release by the Swedish author of the popular vampire novel made into two very popular film versions, Let the Right One In. Handling the Undead was first published in Sweden in 2005, translated into English in 2009, and finally released in the U.S. this year, perhaps in order to coincide with the American movie version of Let the Right One In.
LINDQVIST, John Ajvide. Handling the Undead. tr. from Swedish by Ebba Segerberg. 364p. Thomas Dunne Bks. 2010. pap. $24.99. ISBN 978-0-312-60525-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–In this completely new twist on the zombie novel, Lindqvist presents readers with an interesting dilemma. Everyone in Stockholm who has died within the last two months is suddenly reanimating. Whether in the morgue, a hospital bed or in the grave, they have come back to life–and all they want to do is go home. Instead of being presented as anonymous, shambling masses, these zombies are loved ones who are desperately missed. Through the struggles of several characters trying to cope with their “reliving” family members, the author poses some interesting questions. If you refuse to let the government take your relative, what exactly do you do with him? Is this reanimation a prelude to something bigger? What does it mean to be alive? Though a few ends are left dangling, Lindqvist’s thoughtful approach to the issue of the undead is a fresh entry into a genre with proven teen appeal.–Carla Riemer, Berkeley High School, CA
Zombies are everywhere these days, even infecting Day Two of the Adult 4 Teen blog. I would fight it, but Feed by Mira Grant is entertaining and smart, and as a paperback original it might have escaped notice. First in the Newsflesh series, this particular zombie apocalypse centers around social media, blogging, the future of communications and presidential election politics.
Feed won Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire) the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, presented at the Hugo Awards last month. So when your teen readers clamor for the second in the series, don’t say I didn’t warn you. (Deadline is scheduled for May 2011.)
While we’re here, thought I would mention that the publisher of Feed is Orbit, the Science Fiction and Fantasy imprint of Hachette Book Group. Orbit made a splash in the Adult Books for Young Adults world last year with Soulless by Gail Carriger, a 2010 Alex Award winner. In what is projected to be a five-book series titled The Parasol Protectorate, Soulless was followed this year by Changeless and Blameless.
Tomorrow we move into the realm of nonfiction. Meanwhile, enjoy the review.
GRANT, Mira. Feed. 608p. Orbit. 2010. pap. $9.99. ISBN 978-0-316-08105-4. LC number unavailable.
Adult/High School–When readers first meet Georgia Mason and her adoptive brother, Shaun, it is 2039 and they are battling a horde of zombies in the city that was once Santa Cruz. They escape when Georgia is able to drive over the mob and get them safely to the van they share with their third adoptive sibling, Buffy. The three of them form the core of a journalistic team earnestly engaged in spreading the truth through blogging, one of the only forms of communication still available. The society they know is cloistered, ever-fearful of the Kellis-Amberlee viral infection that rapidly transforms a human into a flesh-eating zombie. When the trio is chosen to cover the presidential campaign, they are thrilled. But as they get closer to the inner circles of power, uncovering the truth becomes deadly. This action-packed, technology-amped suspense novel has many page-turning elements–zombies, political intrigue, combat scenes, and even a hint of incestuous romance. Georgia (who is named after George Romero, because it turns out he got it right about the zombies) is a tough and passionate narrator. Teens who loved the latest spate of zombie tales will find something more satisfying than awkward high school romance here. In fact, the zombies are peripheral in much of the novel, which focuses on the corruption of the American political machine as well as the evolution of the deadly Kellis-Amberlee virus. Think Michael Crichton, only savvier. And the ending is a real killer, sure to leave readers hooked to the “Newsflesh” series.–Diane Colson, New Port Richey Library, FL
Angela Carstensen is Head Librarian and an Upper School Librarian at Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York City. Angela served on the Alex Awards committee for four years, chairing the 2008 committee, and chaired the first YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adult committee in 2009. Recently, she edited Outstanding Books for the College Bound: Titles and Programs for a New Generation (ALA Editions, 2011). Contact her via Twitter @AngeReads.
First, I have to say how thrilled I am that AB4T has been nominated for an Edublog Award in the Best Librarian/Library Blog category. I certainly share the honor with the many fellow librarians who contribute book reviews and guest posts to this blog. It is a wonderfully collaborative effort, which is what makes this blog special — not to mention fun! If you want to vote for the Edublogs (and you can vote for as many categories as you want, once a day), click here.
